Elkan Rex Makin, usually known as Rex Makin, is a solicitor and philanthropist who has practised in Liverpool,England, for over sixty years. He is most noted for his involvement with The Beatles’ early career and subsequently high-profile cases such as the Hillsborough and Heysel Stadium disasters, the Walton sextuplets, and the re-opening of the Cameo Murders case. A freeman of the City of Liverpool, he has also supported the arts and holds an honorary professorship at Liverpool John Moores University. He also writes a weekly column in the Liverpool Echo.

Born in 1925, Makin is the only child of Joe and May Makin. His family moved to Liverpool in the 1850s and his great-great grandfather set up shop as a seamens’ outfitter in Old Hall Street. His father was brought up on Park Lane in the Chinatown area of Liverpool, where he made and supplied trunks to seamen. Makin studied law at the University of Liverpool, gaining his LL.B in 1945 and LL.M in 1947.

E. Rex Makin & Co was founded in 1949 by Rex Makin, Liverpool’s most famous solicitor. Whilst he remains active within the firm, the day to day management of the firm is undertaken by his son, Robin. E. Rex Makin & Co been involved in an extraordinary and varied array of legal work from the lowest courts and tribunals to the highest courts in this country and in Europe. The firm has helped many household names and personalities from the world of music and entertainment, politics, sport and journalism as well as those thrust into the limelight because of circumstance.

Born in Oxford,in England in 1941 & educated at Newnham College, Cambridge, Miriam Margolyes is a veteran of stage and screen, an award-winning actress who achieved success on both sides of the Atlantic. Winner of the BAFTA Best Supporting Actress award in 1993 for The Age of Innocence, she also received Best Supporting Actress at the1989 LA Critics Circle Awards for her role in Little Dorrit and a Sony Radio Award for Best Actress in 1993 for her unabridged recording of ‘Oliver Twist’. She was the voice of the Matchmaker in Mulan & Fly, the mother dog, in Babe.

Major film credits during her long and celebrated career include amongst the many, Yentl and Little Shop of Horrors. She starred in Stephen Hopkins’ The Life and Death of Peter Sellers. Margolyes was also Professor Sprout in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets & Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows.

Her 2004 BBC TV documentary series about Charles Dickens in 2004; Dickens in America was a worldwide success. In May 2010, she starred in the UK TV series, MERLIN.

Her voice work has been internationally acclaimed and she is regarded as the most accomplished female voice in Britain: she has recorded many audio books.

In 2002, H.M The Queen awarded her the Order of the British Empire for her services to Drama.

Her main hobby (obsession) is genealogy, the study of long-dead family and tracing relations. Her father’s family came from Belarus in Eastern Europe: her mother’s from Poland. She has drawn up a Family Tree with over 2,000 individuals, who come from all over the world and has travelled to Belarus, South Africa, Canada, Israel, USA and Scotland. “It’s a labour of love” says Miriam Margolyes.

http://www.miriammargolyes.com/

Louise Ellman MP

Louise Joyce Ellman is a British Labour Co-operative politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Liverpool Riverside since 1997. In parliament she is Chair of the Transport Select Committee and a member of the Liaison Committee.

Ellman was born in Manchester to a British Jewish family. She was educated at the independent Manchester High School for Girls, before studying at the University of Hull where she received a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and History in 1967, and went on to study Social Administration at the University of York where she was awarded a Master of Philosophy in 1972. From 1970, she worked as a lecturer for the Open University in further education, leaving in 1976. She was elected as a councillor on the Lancashire County Council in 1970, becoming the Labour group leader in 1977, and she led the council from 1981 until her election to Parliament. She was Vice Chair of Lancashire Enterprises

Luciana Clare Berger MP is a British Labour Co-operative politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Liverpool Wavertree since 2010.She is a shadow minister for Climate Change.

Luciana grew up in Wembley, on the edge of London, in a close, Jewish family. Her Dad runs a shop which is a family business and her Mum works as part of the patient and family support team in a Palliative Care Unit. Her Grandad sold ladies fashions from a market stall across Northampton, she also has a brother who is a musician.

Luciana lives in Kensington, Liverpool, off Prescot Road in a community which is vibrant, strong and proud. She says “There has been tremendous progress in the years since we chased the Tories out of Downing Street in 1997, but there are still problems, made more difficult by the new Conservative/Lib Dem coalition.”

After doing degrees at Birmingham and London Universities– and being a national student leader – Luciana went to work for one of the top management consultancies, Accenture. Working in their Government Strategy Unit, she advised the Treasury and several other government departments on how they could become more effective.

Before being elected she ran a not-for-profit campaigning and education organisation which works for peace in the Middle East.

Dame Lorna Muirhead DBE, is a past President of the Royal College of Midwives and, since 2006, the current Lord Lieutenant of Merseyside.

In 1992 she became a member of the Council of the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) and, in 1997, was elected as President. She served two terms of office, until 2004. Throughout this time she continued to work as a clinical midwife.

Dame Lorna Muirhead was appointed Lord-Lieutenant of Merseyside in 2006 upon the retirement of Sir Alan Waterworth KCVO.

Born in Shropshire, Dame Lorna trained as a nurse and then as a midwife in Birmingham before coming to Liverpool in 1965 with her husband, who was engaged in Postgraduate studies at the University of Liverpool. The plan was to stay in Liverpool for two years!

For most of her working life Dame Lorna was a clinical midwife, first at the Liverpool Maternity Hospital,Oxford Street and latterly at the Liverpool Women’s Hospital. Her passion was the care of labouring women and during almost 40 years she delivered thousands of Liverpool’s babies – including the Walton sextuplets.

In College archives Dame Lorna is described as, ‘…all encompassing, sweeping everyone into her circle of friendship, cooking for them, eating with them and sharing her love of life with them. We all have tales to tell of the fun we have had with her, of sharing stories, laughter and sharing food. This love of her fellow man and woman has won Dame Lorna respect and affection wherever she goes and midwives everywhere reap the benefits of this.’

Her contribution and passion for midwives, midwifery, women and their families was acknowledged in 2000 when she was awarded Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for service to midwifery.

Stephen McGann was born in Kensington ,Liverpool. He is an English actor – one of a family of acting brothers including Joe, Paul and Mark. He began his professional career in 1982, starring in the West End musical Yakety Yak. He has since worked extensively in British theatre and on screen.

In 1989 he starred as Mickey in the West End hit musical Blood Brothers. In 1990 he played Johann Strauss in the international mini-series, The Strauss Dynasty. In 1993 he created, co-produced and starred in the award-winning BBC drama The Hanging Gale. He portrayed the character of Sean Reynolds in Emmerdale from 1999 to 2002. In 2003 he starred with Jamie Theakston in the hit West End play ‘Art’. Stephen has recently completed filming the series regular role of ‘Dr Turner’ in CALL THE MIDWIFE for the BBC.

Stephen is also a Science Communication postgrad student at Imperial College London.

Of Deane Road Cemetery Stephen says;

‘It’s a great project that reconnects people with their very rich heritage – and reminds people that the inner city of Liverpool hides a fascinating past. I have few memories of the place myself, as we lived further down Kensington as children (by the library). But I think it was mum who first told me that the cemetery existed. Grand and overgrown. It was part of the mysterious landscape of our childhood – kids playing on Victorian streets that were once a rich suburb, housing the great and the good. As those old streets decline, it becomes ever more important to remember its great provenance. Rebirth begins with a respect for those who went before.’

PLEASE HELP US BY DONATING

To donate to the restoration project via PayPal, click here. This will take you to the Liverpool Old Hebrew Congregation donations page, through which you can donate to the Project. Please specify that your donation is for Deane Road Cemetery only.

We would be grateful if UK taxpayers wishing to donate to the cemetery would fill in this Gift Aid form, in order that the congregation can claim a further 25% of your donation from the Inland Revenue, at no extra cost to yourself. Simply print out the form, fill it in and either post it to the address above or scan it and e-mail it to us at the e-mail address below.